JAIPUR:
Bharat Bhushan Meena (35) was deep in alcoholic haze as he drove over four labourers sleeping on a pavement on Thursday night, killing two while critically injuring the reaming. He was so heavily drunk that he was unable realize the enormity of his action.
It was only when he was taken to the Bajaj Nagar police station late Thursday night that reality hit him hard. “I am from a good family, have never been involved in anything wrong before. I don’t know but brakes must have failed,” he told TOI. The police, however, denied the brake failure theory.
He claimed he completed graduation and studied journalism from a leading college in New Delhi. Son of an influential political leader in Karauli, Bharat lived with his wife and a kid in Malviya Nagar.
According to police, Bharat did not have any job, his family, however, owns a petrol pump.
“His brother is also in the police and the family wields considerable influence,” an official said, adding that he was so heavily drunk that he remained indifferent to all the blood and gore around him.
In the police custody, his eyes were bloodshot and palms sweating. His stony expression and indifference which he had been displaying ever since he was caught subsided as consequence of his drunken driving began to sink in. His eyelids fluttered, and hands started to tremble as information about the critical condition of the two labourers reached the police station.
The pedestrians and truckers at the crime spot said that Bharat had tried to flee from the spot but in vain. “He walked out of the car, showed no regret. Even as people beat him, he remained oblivion to them,” said a witness.
The damaged SUV at the accident spot near Gandhi Nagar railway station.
